Mary Daly, the lady captain at Delvin Castle, hasn't let the onerous duties of her captaincy interfere with her golfing prowess. In fact, she will remember 2005 for more than her term of office after recently recording her second hole-in-one of the season.
Daly's first ace came on April 20th when she hit a seven-wood into the wind on the 120-yard par three 10th and the 16-handicapper recorded her second hole-in-one in competition on August 28th, when she hit a three-wood tee-shot on the 131-yard fifth hole at the Co Westmeath course.
Deer Park juniors tops
Four youngsters from Deer Park Hotel and Golf Course have earned the honour of representing Ireland in the YMG International Junior Pairs final - but only just. Playing at the Irish national finals of the new tournament held at Balcarrick Golf Club, Vicky Ruttle, Stephen Ludgate, Alan Carroll and Stephen McDonald finished top of the pile by just a single shot from the team representing the host club.
With a place in the international final at the St Andrews Bay Resort & Spa in Scotland on October 6th at stake for the winners, the Balcarrick team of Grace Williamson, Padraig Rayfus, Niall Worth and Ross Mohan fought hard, but at the end of the 18-hole Team Texas event, they fell short by a single shot.
Each team had to have at least one player under seven, an eight to 11-year old, a player aged 12 or over and at least one girl player. The host club provided great support for all the teams taking part.
Birch's day at European
The European Club Captain's (Eddie Fallon) Prize was played in windy conditions off the white sticks. Winner of the club's Winter League in 2001 and a qualifier for last year's Eastern Alliance Spring League play-offs, Gordon Birch (11) emerged the winner by seven shots with 36 points.
In second place came Seán Byrne (10) with 29 points followed by Des Cullen (6), also with 29 points.
Following recent new bunkering at the European, Birch used a three-wood off the tee and managed to finish with the same ball that he started with - a rare achievement.
Hot summer for Murray
It has been a good summer for Sarah Murray, a 13-year-old from Bellewstown and a member of the Co Louth Golf Club. A student at Gormanston College, Murray started the summer playing to a 36 handicap but has reduced that to 26 with some excellent results.
Included in her victories was the McCabe Cup over nine holes at Co Louth, a competition for girls under-15 with previous winners that include Philomena and Carol Wickham, Tracey Eakin, Jenny Gannon and Suzanne Fanagan. Murray had four shots to spare over the rest of the field.
Another success was in the Daily Telegraph competition, qualifying for the national final and a second place in the parent/child at Gormanston.
Vitting breezes home
A stiffish breeze from the south-west made little difference to Florian Vitting in the recent Ring of Kerry Classic.
Young Vitting destroyed the field despite starting with a triple bogey. The 28-handicapper quickly recovered with four points at the second and third holes before blanking the sixth and ninth for an outward nine of 18 points. The back nine was a revelation with a magnificent score of 24 points for a total of 42.
At one point it had looked as if Paudie Sweeney would match this score having turned with 20 points, but a collapse on the last two holes ruined what had been an excellent round.
However, there was consolation for Sweeney as he smashed a drive at the 14th hole over 300 yards to take second place from Pat Ahern and also the longest drive.
McGreal ends up on top
It's never over till the fat lady sings. Or so they say. It was surely the case in terms of the Golfer of the Year race at Westport Golf Club this season, which proved to be one of the tightest contests in recent years.
In the end, Michael McGreal Jnr claimed the coveted title. With a final total of 1,453 points he had just 50 points to spare over Martin Brennan and Brian Duffy.
In fact, Brennan had victory within his sights, but saw his chances disappear when he missed a birdie opportunity on the par-four 17th hole.
Duffy, who had led going into the final qualifying competition, was unable to hold on, as McGreal came through.
It's been some year for McGreal as on the day of the Irish Close Championship he spent eight hours waiting for the call from the reserve list, but it never came.
Army in command
The Defence Forces golfers won the Irish Nationwide competition for the fourth time in 25 years at the annual outing at City West last week.
In the event, which also involved the Oireachtas, the Garda and the Press, the Army had just one point to spare (173 to 172) over the Press.
The Oireachtas and the Garda shared third place with 162 points. In The RTÉ pair of Tom McGrane and Les Tynan produced the best combined score of the day with 48 Stableford points.
Top scorers for the Army were Comdt Seán Finnegan and Monsignor Eoin Thynne with 45 points. Paudge Connolly and Dick Dowling were best for the Oireachtas with 42 points, a score matched by the best pair in the Garda team, John O'Neill and Paddy Power.
Stackstown city's best
The Dublin Team Trophy winners for 2005 are Stackstown Golf Club, who won by five strokes from Dublin City at Edmonstown on September 4th. The team of Jim Kavanagh (11), Dermot Greegan (10), David McNamara (10) and Tony Power (9) totalled 299 as against the 304 of Jason Redmond, Paul McAllen, Colin McInerney and Des Fleury.
The Kilternan team of Martin Anderson, Larry Mooney, Ron Dunne and Liam Byrne were third on 306.
A total of 30 teams competed on the day.
There was some consolation for Dublin City's 14-handicapper Redmond as he won the best individual nett prize for his 71, on a countback from Kilternan's Martin Anderson (14), while the gross winner was Tom Whelan (Slade Valley) with 81, one better than Declan Murray (9) of Foxrock. Sunday at the Temple
One of the last Senior Scratch Cups of the season will take place at Mount Temple Golf Club over 18 holes on Sunday. The course has withstood a great challenge from all participants in this event over the years, but is still awaiting an overall sub par result. Maybe 2005 will be the year.
skeenan@irish-times.ie
